1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally related to a call waiting service and, more particularly, to a system and method of selectively providing a call waiting signal through the use of a password or access code.
2. Art Background
Call waiting is a widely-used service that is provided by telephone companies to their subscribers. Call waiting enables a called party busy on another call to be notified, via a distinctive tone, of an incoming call and, if desired, to place the ongoing call on hold and connect with the incoming call by pressing the switch hook. Thereafter, the subscriber may once again press the switch hook to reconnect to the party that had been placed on hold. Although conventional call waiting service is a useful feature, many subscribers are annoyed at hearing the call waiting tone while busy on another call, particularly when the incoming call is discovered to be a unwanted call.
To address these issues, a variety of call waiting features are now available. For example, subscribers are offered the ability to turn on/off their call waiting service. However, this leaves open the opportunity of missing important calls, and does not resolve the problem of receiving call waiting signals associated with unwanted calls.
Caller identification (ID) systems now allow a called party to screen incoming calls. However, caller ID systems merely identify the location of the incoming call and, thus, are not particularly useful where a calling party is calling from an unidentified location (e.g., a public pay phone). Unless a calling party is calling from a known location, the called party is unable to ascertain the identity of the calling party or the importance of the incoming call. Also, caller ID systems do not resolve the problem of receiving call waiting signals associated with unwanted calls.
Thus, while subscribers of call waiting are now provided with more options and features, they still have little control over the receipt of a call waiting signal when busy on another call.
A method and system of processing a call from a calling party to a called party are provided to enable selective call waiting which involves determining whether the called party is busy on another call; receiving a password from the calling party; and providing a call waiting signal to the called party only if the password corresponds to at least one predefined password associated with the called party. The password can be defined by the called party or service provider, and maintained on a password list or the like.
The above selective call waiting process is preferably implemented by a intra-switch associated with the called party, but may also be implemented at other locations in a communications network, such as at inter-switches, a central office (CO), private branch exchange (PBX), a call station (e.g., telephone, computer, etc.) of a called party, a server connected to the network, a server manager accessible by a thin host, and so forth. Furthermore, the selective call waiting process may be implemented on or across a variety of networks, such as a public switched network, a local switched network, internet protocol (IP) network, converged voice and data network and so forth.
In accordance with another embodiment, a call station is configured to inhibit notification of an incoming call to the called party; to transmit to a calling party of the incoming call a signal simulating that the called party is busy on another call; to receive a password from the calling party; and to notify the called party of the incoming call if the password corresponds to at least one predefined password associated with the called party. This process may also be implemented in other locations, such as at a intra/inter-switch, a central office (CO), private branch exchange (PBX), a server connected to the network, a server manager accessible by a thin host, and so forth.
Other and further aspects of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following description and by reference to the attached drawings.